Matthieu pinned Aimon against the wall with one clawed hand, while the other was poised above his head, ready to deliver a fatal blow.
The twins used their wisps to hold his arm back, pulling at it with all of their strength as they fought to pry Aimon free, panic riddling our bond from all of us.
“Aimon, fuckingmove!” Jasper screamed.
Matthieu’s arm swung down, even with the twins’ magic opposing him, but Bastian seized the opportunity and hurled a vial of fire potion at him. It shattered at his feet before flames engulfed his monstrous form.
Matthieu’s howl of agony was ear-splitting, but it gave Aimon the chance to break free just before the claw smacked against the stone he’d been pinned against.
Aimon summoned a wall of rock around Matthieu’s burning vessel to protect himself from the flames, coughing as he ran into Bastian.
Bastian grabbed him and helped him drink a healing potion.
“Good work,” Aimon sputtered after swallowing it.
“You too.” Bastian squeezed his shoulder.
Matthieu smashed through the rock, and fragments went everywhere, one smacking into Emperor Lloyd’s head and sending him to the ground the next second.
“You are never going to get her! Just give up already!”Silas struck Matthieu’s fiery form with whips of water, tossing runes of different types of pain at him. He ducked and dodged every swipe of his claws, forced to be on the defense, until one of Silas’s runes missed.
Matthieu caught the upper hand, even with the twins slashing at his monstrous form with sharp wisps of light and dark. Sharp claws slashed deep cuts across Silas’s face, and blood gushed from the massive gashes, dropping in large doses on the ground.
Silas stumbled backward as Aimon summoned a boulder to toss at Matthieu. The ginormous rock landed on the foot of his monstrous form, and he shrieked.
“Fuck!” Silas caught his footing, summoned a rune of fire, and flew it toward Matthieu, engulfing his body in flames once again.
The fire made Matthieu kick outward, and the boulder propelled toward Silas, knocking into his vessel and tossing him to the ground.
Aimon quickly destroyed the rock from Silas, but Matthieu was relentless.
Monsters breached the threshold of the throne room as they surged forward to join Matthieu's side with roars and cries of vengeance.
Panic coursed through our bond.
The pain in my heart surged, and I felt my vessel shake as rage burned through me. My vision tunneled until the only thing I could focus on was Matthieu and the hunger for revenge that consumed me.
But the healing potion wasstillnot working. My spirit stormed with the desire to fight, but my vessel wouldnotheal.
15
BASTIAN
The waragainst Matthieu had escalated into desperation and urgency, with Fawn unable to fight.
“Drink these, love.” I moved to her side, a torrent of healing potions in hand.
It was a desperate attempt to mend the wounds that marred her vessel.
I brought each vial to her mouth, and she swallowed the potions with an almost primal urgency, her spirit power surging forth like a beacon of hope as her eyes glowed pale blue.
The rune in her palm glowed with an ethereal light as she summoned the bone dagger, and it slowly levitated from the rune.
Her breaths came in ragged gasps as the warmth of healing enveloped her, a respite from the pain that had raged within her for so long. Her fingers clenched around the hilt of the dagger, the bone's aura pulsating in sync with her determination.
"Thanks, Bastian," she murmured. The bond between us trembled with the weight of our shared fear. “I’m not sure why it took so long to heal.”
“I think the rune holding thatparticulardaggerwas affecting your vessel and spirit,” I murmured, my chest tightening. “I could feel the disconnect from you with our bond. It scared the shit out of me, love.”
